We closed out our Lollapalooza weekend with a surprise Chance the Rapper show at Metro

It might have been one of the worst-kept secrets of Lollapalooza weekend since people were lined outside Metro before it was officially announced at noon Sunday, but Chance the Rapper played a "surprise" set at Metro. Unsurprisingly, it was fantastic. With music journalists and festival-goers running on fumes by the end of the weekend, a Chance show at a venue he hasn't headlined since May 2013 was too good, fatigue aside, to pass up. In fact, it gave me energy.

The line to get into the show, which was continually spiraling down the block from well before its 10 p.m. doors to his midnight start time, was absolutely absurd. I've been going to shows at Metro ever since I moved to Chicago, and I can't remember a time when the line was that long and the crowd was that antsy to get in. Keep in mind, this show was announced at noon Sunday and ticket-buyers could only purchase spots if they waited in line for physical tickets or if they could snag guest-list spots. Chances are, unless you were a scalper that Chance rightfully roasted on Twitter, you deserved to be there.

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Going into the set, rumors were flying from venue staffers and fans in the line that Kanye West and Future were going to show up. They may have been there, along with other rumored guest Malia Obama, because security was abnormally tight at the venue. But the fans didn't get to see it because this Chance set didn't have any of those rumored marquee guests except for backup singers like Homme's Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart. Even Lollapalooza performer D.R.A.M., who walked in at the time I did, didn't play a single song from his multiple collaborations with Chance and the Social Experiment such as "D.R.A.M. Sings Special" or "Caretaker."

That said, the guests weren't important because there weren't any for Chance the Rapper's first Chicago headlining show since his 2016 opus "Coloring Book" dropped in May. What was interesting about this set was that until the encore, no songs except for the Saba-assisted lead single "Angels" were played. In fact, he played mostly old cuts from his debut "10 Day" and his 2013 masterpiece "Acid Rap." Throughout his show, which included renditions of old-school tracks like "Brain Cells," Chance kept the energy high. On that note, "10 Day," Chance's first tape, gets its namesake from the ten-day suspension he got at Jones College Prep for smoking weed. The dudes he was with when that happened, Twin Peaks' Cadien James and Jack Dolan, were both in attendance. It's a small tidbit of Chicago music trivia, but it felt like this city's young, incredible scene was coming full circle.

The majority of the set boasted cuts from "Acid Rap," the tape that made Chance the Rapper famous. People were lining up since the early afternoon at Metro, and because this is a Chicago show, the set featured several cuts from that career-making full-length including opener "Everybody's Something" and "Smoke Again" including regular set-closer "Chain Smoker," an ending that makes a whole lot of sense espeically if you've seen Lil Chano From 79th live before. Some of the highlights of the show included an extended montage of several major Chance the Rapper guest verses: Action Bronson's "Baby Blue," Towkio's "Heaven Only Knows" and Kanye West's "Ultralight Beam" and "Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1."

Like at most local Chance shows, he didn't play the new songs until the end. If we're not counting a Saba-less rendition of "Angels," every "Coloring Book" track was saved for the encore. Backed by his usual backing band The Social Experiment, which consisted of Peter Cottontale, Nate Fox, Donnie Trumpet and Greg "Stix" Landfair, everything was tight and well-thought-out. Even though Francis and the Lights wasn't around to lend his spectacular vocals, "Summer Friends" was a clear highlight, and because everyone in the audience knew the words already, renditions of both "Blessings" and "Blessings (Reprise)" felt like a spiritual awakening.

At the end of the set, which included multiple people in VIP mistaking Twin Peaks' Jack Dolan for "All Night" producer and singer Knox Fortune, our idea of Chance the Rapper became completely ingrained with our perception of how big he's become in the last couple years. Chance went from the local kid who got suspended and made a mixtape to making everyone crowd out the BMI stage in 2013 to becoming one of the biggest names in music—so big that the Grammys changed their eligibility rules in order to let him get rightfully awarded for his musical contributions. To see him grow so much has been one of the most thrilling music stories I've seen possibly ever. It's clear how much he means to this city.

There aren't many artists in Chicago who can steal the Lollapalooza spotlight and get away with it. Lolla is undoubtedly one of North America's biggest and most lucrative festivals. It had sets from LCD Soundsystem and Ellie Goulding yesterday, but the big show people were talking about was undoubtedly Chance's. This 23-year-old Chicago rapper might be bigger than Lollapalooza.